Audio output configured to indicate a direction

ABSTRACT

An audio output that is configured to indicate a direction is described. In an implementation, a direction of a target is determined in relation to a computing device. An output of sound is configured by the computing device to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the computing device.

BACKGROUND

Users of computing device may encounter a variety of situations that maylimit the user's interaction with the device. For example, the computingdevice may be located in a vehicle and include global positioning systemfunctionality. Using this functionality, the user may receiveturn-by-turn instructions to a final destination. However, use of thisfunctionality may be limited due to a variety of other tasks that arealso performed by the user.

For example, the user may input the final destination into the computingdevice. The computing device may then compute a route to be taken from acurrent position of the computing device to the final destination. Thecomputing device may then use the route to instruct the user “where toturn,” such as by using arrows that are output on a display device ofthe computing device.

However, the user may encounter a variety of distracting situationswhile traveling along the route, such as other vehicles, road hazards,complicated interchanges, and so on. Therefore, the user may find itdifficult to quickly view and comprehend the directions given by thecomputing device in such situations. For instance, it may be difficultfor the user to look at the display device to see the instructionsduring complicated portions of the route, e.g., multiple lane changeswith quick turns. Consequently, the user may become frustrated whiletraveling along this route and thus form a negative opinion of thefunctionality of the device as a whole.

SUMMARY

An audio output that is configured to indicate a direction is described.In an implementation, a direction of a target is determined in relationto a computing device. An output of sound is configured by the computingdevice to indicate the direction of the target in relation to thecomputing device.

In an implementation, one or more computer-readable storage mediainclude instructions that are executable by a computing device toconfigure an output of sound to indicate a direction and distance of atarget in relation to the computing device, the direction is computedusing a location of the target and a location of the computing device.

In an implementation, a mobile communications device includes one ormore modules that are configured to determine a location and anorientation of the mobile communications device and receive data thatdescribes a location of another mobile communications device. The one ormore modules configure an output of sound to indicate a direction ofanother mobile communications device in relation to the mobilecommunications device. The direction is computed by the mobilecommunications device using the described location of the other mobilecommunications device, the determined location data of the mobilecommunications device, and an orientation of the mobile communicationsdevice.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation of an environmentthat is configured to implement techniques to configure an audio outputto indicate a direction.

FIG. 2 is illustration of another example implementation of anenvironment that is configured to implement techniques to configure anaudio output to indicate a direction in a vehicle.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of yet another example implementation of anenvironment that is configured to implement techniques to configure anaudio output to indicate a direction as used by mobile communicationsdevices.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which an audio output is configured to indicate adirection and a distance to a target.

FIG. 5 illustrates various components of an example device that can beimplemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device toimplement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

In some instances, interaction with a computing device may distract auser from an intended task, such as interacting with a GPS device whiledriving a vehicle. In other instances, a variety of situations may beencountered that distract a user from interacting with the computingdevice, e.g., various people that surround the user when talking on amobile phone. Thus, in each of these instances it may be difficult forthe user to engage in focused interaction with the device.

An audio output is described that is configured to indicate a direction.In an implementation, a direction is determined between a computingdevice and a target. An output of sound by the computing device is thenconfigured to indicate the direction such that the user of the computingdevice may gain positional awareness of the target in relation to theuser without having to view the computing device, e.g., the displaydevice of the computing device. In this way, a user may concentrate onthe task at hand (e.g., driving a vehicle) and may be made aware of“where to go” without having to look at the computing device. A varietyof different techniques may be employed to configure the audio output toindicate the direction, further discussion of which may be found inrelation to the following sections.

In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of acomputing device (e.g., a global positioning system device, a mobilecommunications device such as a wireless phone, and so on) aredescribed. Additionally, a variety of different functionality that maybe employed by the computing device is described for each example, whichmay be implemented in that example as well as in other describedexamples. Accordingly, example implementations are illustrated of a fewof a variety of contemplated implementations which include personaldigital assistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices,portable game devices, game consoles, netbooks, and so on.

Example Implementations

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 in an exampleimplementation in which a computing device 102 configures an audiooutput 104 to indicate a direction 106 of a target 108. The computingdevice 102 is illustrated as including a positional awareness module 110that is representative of functionality to indicate a direction of thetarget using sound.

The positional awareness module 110 as illustrated includes a relativedirection module 112 and a sound engine 114. The relative directionmodule 112 is representative of functionality of the computing device102 to determine the direction 106 of the target 108 in relation to thecomputing device 102, which may coincide with a position at which a user116 of the computing device 102 is likely positioned.

The relative direction module 112 may determine the direction 106 of thetarget 108 in a variety of ways. For example, the relative directionmodule 112 may incorporate functionality of a compass 118 to determinean orientation of the computing device 102, which may be performed intwo dimensions (e.g., 360 degrees) or three dimensions. Additionally,the determination may be made for a peripheral device that may beconsidered a part of the computing device 102. For example, a user ofthe computing device may include a wearable device (e.g., a headset)that is in communication with a portion of the computing device 102having the processor, display, and so on. The wearable device mayinclude functionality to determine an orientation of the wearable device(e.g., a 3D compass) and thus a likely direction in which a user of thecomputing device 102 is oriented, e.g., which way the user is “looking.”Thus, the orientation in relation to the computing device 102 may be inrelation to a “main” housing of the computing device 102, a peripheraldevice in communication with the main housing (e.g., a wearable device),and so on.

The relative direction module 112 may then use the orientation alongwith a position of the computing device 102 and a position of the target106 to determine the direction 106 with respect to the device, e.g., theorientation of the device in two dimensional and/or three dimensionalspace. The positions of the computing device 102 and the target 108 maybe determined in a variety of ways, such as by the computing device 102itself as further described in relation to FIG. 2 and/or the computingdevice 102 and the target 108 as further described in relation to FIG.3.

The direction 106 that is determined by the relative direction module112 may then be used by the sound engine 114 to configure the audiooutput 104 to indicate the direction 106. The audio output 104 may beconfigured in a variety of ways. For example, a plurality of audiooutput devices (e.g., speakers) may be used to indicate directionality,e.g., by using the audio device 122 that corresponds with the direction106, using sound imaging techniques, and so on. Further discussion ofuse of a plurality of audio devices may be found in relation to FIG. 2.In another example, a single audio device may be used to indicate thedirection (e.g., using directional sound, two-dimensional soundinteractions, three-dimensional sound interactions, and so on), furtherdiscussion of which may be found in relation to FIG. 3.

Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that areconfigured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of thefunctions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware(e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination ofthese implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “engine”as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or acombination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, themodule, functionality, or logic represents program code that performsspecified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). Theprogram code can be stored in one or more computer readable memorydevices. The features of the techniques described above areplatform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented ona variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety ofprocessors.

FIG. 2 depicts a system 200 in an example implementation in which thecomputing device 102 is configured to include global positioning system(GPS) functionality to determine a location of a target and thecomputing device 102. The computing device 102 is illustrated asincluded in a vehicle 202 that is positioned in a center lane 204 of athree-lane highway that also includes left and right lanes 206, 208. Thevehicle 202 is also illustrated as enlarged next to the highway to showaudio output devices (speakers) of the vehicle, which include afront-left speaker 210, a front-right speaker 212, a back-left speaker214 and a back-right speaker 216.

The computing device 102, and more particularly the relative directionmodule 112 of the positional awareness module 214, is also illustratedas including a GPS module 218. The GPS module 218 representsfunctionality of the computing device 102 to use position-determiningfunctionality (e.g., GPS) to determine a location of the computingdevice 102, and consequently the vehicle 202. The GPS module 218 mayalso represent functionality to determine a location of a destination.

To use the GPS functionality, a user may input an intended destination.In response to the input, the GPS module 218 may compute a route from acurrent position of the computing device 102 (and thus the vehicle 202)to the destination, which may include a series of sequential waypoints.This series of waypoints may then be used by the positional awarenessmodule 214 as a series of targets to configure an audio output by thesound engine 114.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the vehicle 202 is illustrated aspositioned in a center lane 204 and the target 108 is illustrated as awaypoint positioned on an off ramp that is accessible via the right lane208. Thus, the GPS module 218 has already determined a position of thetarget 108 and may also be used to determine a position of the computingdevice 102, and therefore the vehicle 202.

The GPS module 218 in this example may also be used to determine thedirection of the target 108 in relation to the computing device 102. Forinstance, the GPS module 218 may determine a heading of the vehicle 202,e.g., a direction of travel. Therefore, the direction 220 of the target108 in relation to the vehicle 202 may be determined using the positionof the target 108, the position of the computing device 102, and theorientation of the computing device 102 (e.g., which is the heading inthis instance of the vehicle 202). In other words, the direction 220 mayindicate “where to look” to find the target 108 in relation to thevehicle 202.

The sound engine 114 may then configure the audio output (e.g., audioturn-by-turn instructions) based on the direction 220. For example, thecomputing device 102 may be communicatively coupled to the front-leftspeaker 210, front-right speaker 212, back-left speaker 214 andback-right speaker 216 as previously described. Thus, the speakers210-216 are positioned directionally around the user. This directionalplacement may be leveraged by the sound engine 114 to indicate thedirection 220 by weighting the audio output to be greatest from theaudio output device that is closest to the direction 108 (e.g., thefront-right speaker 212 in this example) and to decrease as the audiooutput devices get further away from the direction 220, e.g., theback-left speaker 214 in this example would have the least amount ofoutput in this example. Thus, a plurality of audio output devices may beused to indicate the direction 220.

Although weighting of the audio output (e.g., volume) has beendescribed, it should be readily apparent that a wide variety of audioimaging techniques may be deployed without departing from the spirit andscope thereof, such as acoustic wave interference techniques,directional sound projection, and so on. Another example is discussed inrelation to the following figure.

FIG. 3 depicts a system 300 in an example implementation in which thecomputing device 102 is configured to receive data that describes alocation of the target 108 over a network 302. In this example, thecomputing device 102 is configured as a mobile communications device,e.g., a wireless phone, game console, netbook, messaging device, and soon. The target 108 is also configured as a mobile communications devicein this example that is communicatively coupled to the computing device102 over the network 302, e.g., a cellular network, wireless WAN,wireless LAN, and so on. The computing device 102 also includes a GPSmodule 218 to determine a location of the computing device 102 usingposition determining functionality as previously described in relationto FIG. 2.

In this example, however, the computing device 102 receives locationdata 304 via the network 302 that describes the location of the target108. For example, the target 108 may also include a GPS module 218 thatis executable to determine coordinates of the target 108. Thiscoordinates may then be included in the location data 304 that iscommunicated over the network 302 to the computing device 102. Thecomputing device 102 may then use the data in determining the directionof the target 108 in relation to the computing device 102.

A relative direction module 112 may also leverage an orientation module306 to determine the direction. For example, the orientation module 306may use one or more sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gravity-sensingdevices, and so on) to determine the orientation of the device 102 intwo dimensional and/or three dimensional space. Using the determinedorientation in combination with the positions of the target 108 and thecomputing device 102, the positional awareness module 110 may compute“where” the target 108 is located in relation to the computing device102, e.g., the direction and a distance between the devices in thisexample.

As before, the sound engine 114 may then configure the audio output toindicate the direction. For instance, an audio output may be increasedwhen a user is likely to be “looking” in the direction of the target108. Continuing with the previous example, because the orientation ofthe computing device 102 is known, a likely position of the user that isinteracting with the device may be inferred from this knowledge.Therefore, the audio output may be configured to indicate the directionof the target 108 when it is determined that the user is likely “pointedin that direction” based on an orientation of the computing device 102.

For example, the likely orientation of the user may be determined bytaking into account a variety of different orientations of the computingdevice 102 and/or current functionality of the computing device 102 thatis being utilized. Once such orientation includes holding the computingdevice 102 against a user's ear, such as to place telephone call.Therefore, the likely orientation of the user may be determined by theorientation of the computing device 102 in space and functionalityemployed by the computing device 102, e.g., telephone functionality inthis example. Likewise, another likely position of the user may bedetermined based on a horizontal orientation of the computing device122, e.g., when held horizontally in the user's hand to view a displaydevice of the computing device 102, such as to interact with a userinterface displayed on a display device. Thus, in this implementationthat positional awareness module 110 may take into account the likelyorientation of the user of the computing device 102 to indicate thedirection of the target 108.

The positional awareness module 110 may also indicate a distance betweenthe target 108 and the computing device 102. The distance may beindicated in a variety of ways, such as configuration of the audiooutput (e.g., using volume), displayed on the user interface on thedisplay device of the computing device 102 as illustrated in FIG. 3, andso on. Thus, the direction and distance functionality may be used widevariety of purposes, such as to enable telephone callers to locate eachother in a building (e.g., a shopping mall), to enable a user to locatethe vehicle 202 of FIG. 2 in parking lot, and so on.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes audio output configuration techniquesthat may be implemented utilizing the previously described systems anddevices. Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented inhardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. The proceduresare shown as a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one ormore devices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown forperforming the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of thefollowing discussion, reference will be made to the environments 100-300of FIGS. 1-3, respectively.

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in which adirection of a target in relation to a computing device is indicatedusing an audio output. A direction of a target is determined in relationto a computing device (block 402). For example, a position of the targetan acquisition of the computing device may be obtained (block 404), suchas through position determining functionality including a globalpositioning system, use of broadcast towers (e.g., cellular towers), andso on.

An orientation of the computing device is ascertained (block 406), suchas through use of sensors of the computing device to determine theorientation in two and/or three dimensions. The direction of the targetis then computed in relation to the computing device using the positionof the target, the position of the computing device, and the orientationof the computing device (block 408). The output of sound may then beconfigured to indicate of the direction of the target in relation to thecomputing device (block 410) and indicate the distance between thetarget and the computing device (block 412).

In this way, the audio output techniques described herein may minimizethe visual and voice distractions of the users by supplementing themwith sound interactions. For example, the computing device may provide“3D sound points” to the user through a 360 degree auditory space toindicate a relative location of the target 108. The sound effects (alongwith volume gain to stress distance to target) may provide the user withan artificial effect through 3D head transfer algorithms. For example,the auditory effect may be used to indicate that a voice note (e.g.,instructions) that appears to be biased toward a left ear indicates thatthe target 108 is to the left and vice versa. Thus, in an implementationthe sound engine 114 may be used to provide a 360 degree auditorypositioning system. In this way, the user is aided to quickly locate atarget using natural responses initiated by the techniques describedherein.

Example Device

FIG. 5 illustrates various components of an example device 500 that canbe implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device toimplement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobilecommunications. For example, device 500 can be implemented as any of themobile communications devices 102 described with reference to respectiveFIGS. 1-3. Device 500 can also be implemented to access a network-basedservice.

Device 500 includes input 502 that may include Internet Protocol (IP)inputs as well as other input devices, such as the keyboard 112 ofFIG. 1. Device 500 further includes communication interface 504 that canbe implemented as any one or more of a wireless interface, any type ofnetwork interface, and as any other type of communication interface. Anetwork interface provides a connection between device 500 and acommunication network by which other electronic and computing devicescan communicate data with device 500. A wireless interface enablesdevice 500 to operate as a mobile device for wireless communications.

Device 500 also includes one or more processors 506 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 500and to communicate with other electronic devices. Device 500 can beimplemented with computer-readable media 508, such as one or more memorycomponents, examples of which include random access memory (RAM) andnon-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM),flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).

Computer-readable media 508 provides data storage to store content anddata 510, as well as device applications and any other types ofinformation and/or data related to operational aspects of device 500.For example, an operating system 512 can be maintained as a computerapplication with the computer-readable media 508 and executed onprocessor 506. Device applications can also include a communicationmanager module 514 (which may be used to provide telephonicfunctionality) and a media manager 516.

Device 500 also includes an audio and/or video output 518 that providesaudio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or display system 520.The audio rendering and/or display system 520 can be implemented asintegrated component(s) of the example device 500, and can include anycomponents that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video,and image data. Device 500 can also be implemented to provide a usertactile feedback, such as vibrate and haptics.

Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that areconfigured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of thefunctions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware(e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination ofthese implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “logic”as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or acombination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, themodule, functionality, or logic represents program code that performsspecified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). Theprogram code can be stored in one or more computer readable memorydevices. The features of the techniques described above areplatform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented ona variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety ofprocessors.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device, comprising: a communication interface configured to: receive location data, via a network, for a target, and communicate with a peripheral device attached to a user, separate from the mobile device, having functionality to determine an orientation of the peripheral device; a global positioning system module configured to determine a current position of the mobile device; an audio rendering system configured to instruct the user of a route to the target; and a processor configured to execute a positional awareness module having: an orientation module configured to ascertain, from the orientation of the peripheral device attached to the user, an orientation of the user, a relative direction module to compute a direction of the target in relation to the mobile device using the location data for the target, the current position of the mobile device, and the orientation of the user, and a sound engine to configure an audio imaging of an audio output from the audio rendering system to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the user, wherein the audio imaging comprises at least one of weighting of the audio output, acoustic wave interference techniques, or directional sound projection.
 2. The mobile device as described in claim 1, wherein the location data includes global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the target.
 3. The mobile device as described in claim 1, wherein the mobile device is moving.
 4. The mobile device as described in claim 1, wherein the audio rendering system is positioned directionally around the user.
 5. The mobile device as described in claim 1, wherein the audio rendering system is configured to adjust a volume of the audio output to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the mobile device.
 6. The mobile device as described in claim 1, wherein the audio output is configured to indicate a relative distance from the target.
 7. A computing device having a memory configured to store instructions that when performed by the computing device execute a positional awareness module, the computing device further configured to: communicate with a peripheral device attached to a user, separate from the computing device, having functionality to determine an orientation of the peripheral device; receive location data for a target, wherein the target is a mobile communication device, the location data describing a location of the mobile communication device as determined by the mobile communication device; instruct the user of a route to the target; ascertain an orientation of the user from the orientation of the peripheral device attached to the user; compute the direction of the target in relation to the computing device using the location data for the target, a current position of the computing device, and the orientation of the user; and configure an audio imaging of an audio output to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the user, wherein the audio imaging comprises at least one of weighting of the audio output, acoustic wave interference techniques, or directional sound projection.
 8. The computing device as described in claim 7, the computing device further configured to: determine a current position of the computing device using global positioning system (GPS) functionality of the computing device.
 9. The computing device as described in claim 7, the computing device further configured to: adjust a volume of the audio output to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the mobile device.
 10. The computing device as described in claim 7, the computing device further configured to: indicate a relative distance from the target.
 11. A method implemented by a mobile communication device, the method comprising: communicating with a peripheral device attached to a user, separate from the mobile communication device, having functionality to determine an orientation of the peripheral device; receiving location data for a target, wherein the target is a mobile device, the location data describing a location of the mobile device as determined by the mobile device; instructing the user of a route to the target; ascertaining an orientation of the user from the orientation of the peripheral device attached to the user; computing a direction of the target in relation to the mobile communication device using the location data for the target, a current position of the computing device, and the orientation of the user; and configuring an audio imaging of an audio output to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the user, wherein the audio imaging comprises at least one of weighting of the audio output, acoustic wave interference techniques, or directional sound projection.
 12. The method as described in claim 11, further comprising: adjusting a volume of the audio output and configuring the audio imaging of the audio output from an audio rendering system to indicate the direction of the target in relation to the mobile communication device by weighting the audio output to be greatest from an audio output device, among a plurality of audio output devices available to the audio rendering system, that is closest to the direction of the target.
 13. The method as described in claim 11, further comprising: determining a current position of the mobile device using a global positioning module.
 14. The method as described in claim 11, wherein the location data includes global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the target.
 15. The method as described in claim 11, wherein the mobile communication device is moving.
 16. The method as described in claim 11, wherein the audio rendering system is positioned directionally around the user.
 17. The method as described in claim 11, wherein the audio rendering system is configured to indicate a relative distance from the target. 